To a safer Macdonald bridge

Construction starts next week on "safety barriers" to deter suicides

Construction starts next week to extend euphemistically named
"safety barriers" across the length of the Macdonald Bridge, along both
the pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge and the bicycle
lane along the north side of the bridge.

The new barriers will match the existing barriers that extend only
so far as the water's edge on both sides of the western end of the
bridge. Those barriers were erected in August of 2007 in response to a
lawsuit from the Department of Defence; the case file for the suit
references repeated suicide victims falling on DND property and
endangering DND employees.

Last year, Coast writer Matt Aikins won an Atlantic Journalism Award
and a Canadian Association of Journalists Award for his piece "Adam's
fall," which examined suicides from the bridge, and argued that suicide
barriers should be extended across the bridge.

Subsequently, The Coast has filed a Freedom of Information Act
request for statistics on bridge suicides. That request was denied, but
is under appeal.